Upgrades

PPL Electric Utilities has completed a $3 million project to improve service reliability in Moore Township, Northampton County, the company said Monday. The project included building a substation at Delps and Mink roads, connecting that substation to a transmission line and making distribution power line improvements. Previously, the area around the new substation in the northwestern part of the township was served from the utility's Northampton substation, meaning outages anywhere between Northampton and Moore could interrupt customers for long periods of time until repairs were made.

A heavily traveled section of Route 309 in Bucks and Montgomery counties will get a $35 million overhaul. PennDOT is in the design phase of a project to revamp nine miles of the busy state roadway. The major road construction project will cross through Richland, West Rockhill, Hilltown and Hatfield. At Richland's Board of Supervisors meeting Monday night, PennDOT officials presented the board with early information on the two-year project. "We're still in the preliminary stages," said PennDOT project manager Madeleine Fausto.

The Wooden Match, a cigar bar pub located in a one-time train station in south Bethlehem is evolving and upgrading under new owners, experienced restauranteurs Steve DiDonato and Vince Randazzo. The partners are continuing to work with former owner Cigars International to provide premium cigars and develop exciting cigar events, including happenings tied to CigarFest April 24-28. St. Paddy's Day weekend, March 15-17, brings its own host of celebrations, from Jameson and Guinness events to live bag pipers.

I moved to Allentown in 2002. Driving to work on my first day at Kutztown University, stuck behind a trash truck for 12 miles down Schantz Road and onto Route 222 until the Kutztown bypass, I wondered, through the inescapable stench, what I had gotten myself into. Had I not found an alternative route that avoided 222 on my commute, I probably would have moved to avoid it. Road Warrior Dan Hartzell recently wrote about the Route 222 intersection with Schantz Road . In his column, he noted the possibility of a roundabout, which was characterized as a permanent solution by a state Transportation Department official.

A towering white candle weeping blobs of blue wax is so 1990. More than two decades after its last makeover, Easton's Peace Candle is about to get a $25,000 overhaul to its steel skeleton and a fresh set of duds — a white candle body with proper, off-white melted wax. Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said the current candle reached the end of the line when steelworkers determined its superstructure no longer met safety codes and its plywood skin needed to...

Salisbury Township is seeking bids for upgrades to the township building security system. Bids will be accepted until 3 p.m. Nov. 29, at which time bids will be opened and read aloud publicly. Documents pertinent to the work are open to public inspection at the office of the Architect, Spillman Farmer Architects, 1720 Spillman Drive, Suite 200, Bethlehem, PA 18015-2169. Call 610-865-2621 to obtain a copy.

Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10 to consider several business matters, such as an amendment to the police pension ordinance and the authorization to pay for security upgrades at the municipal building. he board will also hear presentations by Envision Lehigh Valley on sustainable communities and by Scott Daw on a fundraiser to stock the pond at Laubach Park. The meeting is open to the public. Commissioners meet at the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

Bethlehem Area School District has prioritized its plans for upgrading security, starting with expanding its card-access entry system and fixing the blurry video and muffled audio used for some schools' buzz-in entrances. The district has $600,000 designated for facilities projects in its 2013-14 preliminary budget and administrators laid out more than $859,000 in possible improvements at Monday's Facilities Committee meeting. The top priority, based on a review including discussions with parents and faculty, is spending $330,000 to expand card-access entry from five schools to 22 schools.

The coin-fed sentinels counting the minutes available to Easton's downtown guests are getting updates, upgrades and an expanded appetite. It started Friday as city employees began reprogramming older meters along the roads and alleys ringing Centre Square in the downtown — Larry Holmes Drive and Bushkill, Pine, Ferry, Bank, Spring Garden and Spruce streets. The changes will increase rates from $0.50 to $1 an hour, and extend enforcement hours to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and for the first time, from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Sure, kitchen and bath renovations get all the glamour and credit for offering high returns on your investment when it's time to sell your home. But a host of other, often-overlooked improvements can also offer great ROI - while completely changing the look of your home at a fraction of the cost of bigger projects. "Improvements like upgrading your home's stair case can give a home a fresh look quickly and affordably," says Dale L. Reutter, president, WM Coffman, which has been making and distributing stair products for more than 130 years.

DeSales University is planning $16 million in upgrades to its athletics facilities, a move that school officials hope will make it competitive in recruiting students. The project is the first of five phases the university hopes to complete over the next 20 years, said Robert Snyder, DeSales vice president of Administration and Finance and Campus Environment. DeSales officials reviewed the plans Tuesday with the Upper Saucon Township Planning Commission. It was the Center Valley school's third appearance before the advisory board since the plans were unveiled in June.

The early 20th-century Georgian mansion in Bethlehem Township's Housenick Park will be examined for restoration by the architectural firm that designed it. The township commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to pay Spillman Farmer Architects $17,000 to develop a comprehensive plan for restoring the building's exterior and determining what the work will cost. The Bethlehem firm was one of two considered for the project. The other was John Milner of Chadds Ford, Delaware County, also known for restoring historic properties.

By Meghan Moravcik Walbert, Special to The Morning Call | August 4, 2014

Whitehall is likely to move forward soon on a large-scale resurfacing project on Columbia Street, a MacArthur Road detour route. The township's Board of Commissioners is expected to vote Monday to spend an estimated $365,000 largely to resurface a 1-mile stretch of Columbia Street from Church Street to Ringer Road. "Columbia Street is predominantly used as a detour route in case MacArthur Road southbound is blocked for any reason," Mayor Edward Hozza Jr. said after a board workshop meeting Monday night.

The Parkland Community Library will be closed to patrons Monday, Aug. 11, for a technology upgrade, according to the library website. Starting at 2 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 9, through Tuesday, Aug. 12, the library's catalog will also be unavailable for use by patrons, the website said. The library's catalog service will be available again on Aug. 12, though the time has not been released, the website said. For more information about the Parkland Community Library, call 610-398-1361 or visit the website at http://www.parklandlibrary.org.

By Meghan Moravcik Walbert, Special to The Morning Call | July 15, 2014

The Northampton Area School Board will decide later this month whether to add nearly $1 million worth of improvements to a large-scale construction project that features a new middle school. The $80.7 million project, which includes construction of a middle school for grades 6-8, as well as a pool, running track, field house and girls softball field, got underway in April 2013 and will be done in phases. Once the new school is open for the start of the 2015-16 school year, the old middle school will be torn down to make way for an extra sports field.

UGI Utilities has accelerated the upgrading of aging distribution lines. Now it has the ability to charge customers for that work ... It's coming back. Allentown's downtown revival has the Shanty's former owners planning a new downtown restaurant ... Rising pork prices mean your BLT could cost more in the future ... Chick-Fil-A is giving out free food Friday...If you're headed to Allentown's new arena for a concert, finding parking could be a challenge...QUOTE OF THE DAY: " Why am I being treated different ?"

Only a dozen movies have grossed more than $1 billion at the box office and the Wyoming Valley-connected Jon Landau produced a pair of them. And not just any pair. He oversaw the $2.7 billion-grossing "Avatar" (2009) and the $2.1 billion-grossing "Titanic" (1997), the two most successful films of all time. This season, both blockbusters are receiving home-viewing upgrades. "Avatar," which is already available on DVD and Blu-ray, will make its debut as a 3-D Blu-ray on Oct. 16. "Titanic," which was re-released in theaters this spring in 3-D, will make its 2-D and 3-D Blu-ray bow on Sept.

Homeowners coping with rising sewer service rates in many parts of Lehigh County may want to brace themselves for more hikes to come. Ratepayers already absorbing costs of long-overdue improvements to aging underground sewer pipes throughout western Lehigh County must now grapple with the prospect of major upgrades to treatment plants. The Lehigh County Authority, which collects much of that waste, estimates that the work could cost between $160 million and $221 million. Its leaders plan to detail the potential price tag for sewage treatment plant upgrades and the increasing need for them at a 7 p.m. meeting Thursday at the Lehigh County Government Center.

Penn State plans a $2-million face-lift for some of its football facilities, including the Lasch Football Building. According to the agenda for Friday's board of trustees meeting, the university will renovate the team meeting room and lobby at Lasch. The plan includes "new carpeting, lighting, furniture, finishes and wall graphics," according to the Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning. In addition, the team's training table at Pollock Commons will receive new paint and seating.